There’s another way to let the federal government know how you feel about your wireless and internet bills, as Vancouver-based non-profit OpenMedia has made an easy form for consumers to fill out.
The CRTC recently was mandated by the Liberal government to review wireless services and prices and also to reconsider MNVOs, all in the name of lowering prices for consumers (fall election coming, of course). The new policy direction is seeking input from Canadians, with a deadline of April 8, 2018.
OpenMedia says once you fill out your name, email address and postal code, the pre-written letter will be sent to Pamela Miller, Director General, Telecommunications and Internet Policy Branch, at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.
According to OpenMedia:
After years of CRTC decisions that put Big Telecom’s interests before customers, the federal government has finally proposed a new direction ordering the CRTC to put people first.
That means affordability and competition would have to come before Big Telecom’s profits! But it’s not a done deal yet – Big Telecom hates this proposal, and is lobbying hard to kill it before it gets off the ground. And if we don’t make sure the old rules that rely on market forces are fully removed, it could mean this new pro-customer direction for the CRTC doesn’t stand a chance.
We need to show the government there’s widespread support for the new direction for the CRTC, and ensure that people are its first priority.
The form says you should “Tell the government: Make sure the CRTC has no excuse but to put people first.”
Laura Tribe, executive director of OpenMedia, recently responded to a Telus executive Ted Woodhead, who compared this latest campaign as “more yellow vesting the government.”
Tribe wrote, “Ted, I get that you don’t like us. But comparing us to a movement that has been associated with white supremacy and violent anti-immigration activism is wildly inappropriate.”
Ted, I get that you don't like us. But comparing us to a movement that has been associated with white supremacy and violent anti-immigration activism is wildly inappropriate. https://t.co/6FpZljcYcQ
— Laura Tribe (@ltribe) March 28, 2019
According to Michael Geist, he believes this demeaning comment by the Telus executive “suggests that the incumbent wireless companies will launch a full scale lobbying campaign against the measure,” drawing comparisons to when the Big 3 lobbied to keep Verizon out of Canada in 2013.
TekSavvy recently launched their own website to let Canadians write easy letters to their Members of Parliament, over at paylesstoconnect.ca, which as of yesterday, has seen over 15,000 letters sent to MPs.
